Bonnie and Orville

Right at its opening, the film declares it is based on true events, immediately capturing the audience’s attention. However, the revelation of this truth completely subverts any expectations that might have been built so far.

A couple, marked by their love and affection, lives a life of penury, starvation, and loss. The woman, Bonnie, has not recovered from their most recent tragedy, but the love between the two still allows them a moment of peace and joy. This brief instance, however, is soon struck by another tragic development, shattering any semblance of normalcy and familial affection the two might have desperately clung to so far.

The film presents a reversal of fate to draw attention to the cruelty implicit in the act of killing a living being for consumption. It presents a comment on human apathy, and in a way, humankind's own bestial nature that allows it to celebrate, or carry on mundane everyday affairs around a meal table that is built on a carcass. The performances, storytelling, and narratorial construction remain impactful in all that they wish to convey. The visual representation of these ideas too exhibits investment of thought and skill as it shares this reality with the viewer.